NEW YORK (Reuters Health)
— Young people are
smoking fewer cigarettes these days, but their cigar use is rising,
which may partly be due to the popularity of flavored cigars,
according to a new study.

"The cigar market is the most heavily flavored of
all tobacco products," said Cristine D. Delnevo, who led the
research. "For decades, tobacco industry internal documents have
highlighted that flavors appeal to youth and young people."

Delnevo, who directs the Center for Tobacco Surveillance &
Evaluation Research at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New
Brunswick, and colleagues from the National Institutes of Health
investigated recent market and survey data on flavored cigar use
among young people.

Delnevo and her coauthors analyzed an annual survey of drug and
alcohol use among Americans ages 12 and up. For this study, the
researchers selected the 6,700 survey responders in 2010 and 2011
who reported smoking cigars in the previous month and had noted
their usual brand.

They found that 8 percent of men and 2 percent of women said they
had smoked a cigar in the past 30 days, but 11 percent of people
between ages 18 and 25 years old had smoked a cigar — more than any
other age group.

Three quarters of cigar smokers reported a usual brand that offers
flavored varieties, according to the results published in the
journal Tobacco Control.

People who smoked cigarettes or those who smoked cigars daily were
more likely to report using a flavored brand. Flavored varieties
were also more popular among females, African Americans and people
under age 35.

By 2011, flavored cigars made up almost half of all cigar sales from
convenience stores, according to Nielsen market scanner data.
Between 2008 and 2011, revenue from cigar sales went up by 30
percent, driven largely by flavored cigar sales, which increased by
53 percent.

Flavored cigars increased from 42 percent of the cigar market in
2008 to 50 percent of the cigar market in 2011.

"It is important to remember that youth experiment with multiple
tobacco products, not just cigarettes," Delnevo told Reuters Health
by email. "In fact, the most recent data from the National Youth
Tobacco Survey show that rates of current cigarette and cigar use do
not differ among adolescent males."

Public health messaging in the past largely focused on cigarettes,
she said.

Cigars have been flavored for decades, but may be appealing to youth
more now as a substitute for cigarettes, Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention epidemiologist Brian King told Reuters Health.